As Graeme Souness came to manage Southampton in the summer of 1996, biding his time before making some overseas signings, his assistant, Terry Cooper, was meanwhile busy buying on the home-front. His purchases included Graham Potter, who had been a teenage prospect of his at Birmingham.

As a left-sided midfielder who could also fill in at full-back, Graham seemed worth a gamble at £250,000. He would immediately win an U-21 cap, but he would not cut it in the Premier League.

So he soon dropped down a tier to West Brom and thence to the lower divisions, his most settled spell consisting of more than 100 appearances for York City in the fourth tier.In December 2006, he gained a social science degree from the Open University, aided by PFA sponsorship, and then worked with a university or two in their sports departments. Having served as the technical director for Ghana’s Ladies team during the 2008 Olympic qualifiers, he joined the Swedish club, Östersunds, on a three-year coaching contract.

They were then in the 4^th tier but by October 2015 Potter had won three promotions to reach the Swedish top flight, the Allsvenskan. He then won the Swedish Cup in April 2017, qualifying for Europe in the process and then reaching the last 32 in the competition. Inevitably British clubs became interested in his coaching abilities and Championship Swansea took the plunge in June 2018 appointing him as Carlos Carvalhal’s successor.  A year later Brighton enticed him to the Premier League where he enjoyed three successful seasons, a fact duly noted at Stamford Bridge. When Chelsea sacked Thomas Tuchel not long after the 2022-23 season commenced it was to Potter they turned.

It did not end well and after his dismissal he spent nearly two years out of the game before another London club sought his services.